The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Musichttps://www.thestranger.com
Seattle's #1 Weekly Newspaper. Covering Seattle news, politics, music, film, and arts; plus movie times, club calendars, restaurant listings, forums, blogs, and Savage Love.en-usCopyright 2018 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger.editor@thestranger.com (The Stranger Editor)webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster)Mon, 19 Mar 2018 00:00:01 -0700Mon, 19 Mar 2018 07:45:00 -0700Foundationhttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssPussy Riot's Balaclava-Led Revolutionhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/03/14/25904855/pussy-riots-balaclava-led-revolution
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/03/14/25904855/pussy-riots-balaclava-led-revolutionCiara Dolan
Russian punk band and protest group Pussy Riot embark on their first US tour.
by Ciara Dolan
<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>bout six years ago, a group of women wearing colorful balaclavas made international headlines after storming Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, thrashing around the altar, and chanting, "Virgin Mary, mother of God, put Putin away."</p>
<p>The women belonged to Pussy Riot, the anti-Kremlin protest collective and feminist punk band that formed shortly after Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency in 2012. Following the "Punk Prayer" demonstration, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were imprisoned and charged with "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred"—an ironic conviction, given the group's frequent criticism of Russia's lack of separation between church and state. The highly publicized trial resulted in the sentencing of Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina to two years in a penal colony (Samutsevich was freed on probation).</p>
<p>Pussy Riot use brash punk rock as a channel for their messages of resistance, which challenge hegemonic institutions and extend to wherever they see injustice. They've spoken out about women's and LGBTQ rights, the terrible conditions they endured in Russia's prison system, government corruption, fascism, capitalism, police brutality, and the refugee crisis. Inspired by 1990s riot grrrl bands like Bikini Kill, their music is abrasive by design—it's supposed to be impossible to ignore. In the past, their guerrilla performances followed a similar pattern: infiltrate a public space (always wearing those balaclavas) and scream-sing politically charged lyrics, demanding the attention of passersby.</p>
<p>That's why the idea of a Pussy Riot concert is rather odd; the group has self-described as a "fake band" and never aimed to entertain. But they're currently crossing the United States on a "<a href="https://www.spin.com/2018/02/pussy-riot-2018-us-tour/">live music performance art</a>" tour, with a sold-out show in Seattle. When Alyokhina and fellow Pussy Riot member Ksenia Zhivago visited the Pacific Northwest in early 2016 for <a href="https://www.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2016/02/10/last-nights-conversation-with-pussy-riot-was-weird">a moderated dialogue and Q&A</a> about the documentary <i>Act & Punishment</i>, they reflected on the global solidarity their movement received, warned about Donald Trump's likeness to Putin, and emphasized the danger of being radical in a country like Russia: "If you choose not to accept this kind of order, you risk losing everything," Alyokhina said.</p>
<p>That same year, Tolokonnikova dropped Pussy Riot's debut EP, the electro-punk <i>xxx</i>, and ever since, she's been releasing a steady stream of music videos for tracks like "Make America Great Again," "Bad Apples," and "<a href="https://genius.com/Pussy-riot-straight-outta-vagina-lyrics">Straight Outta Vagina</a>," which centers on the singsong chorus "Don't play stupid, don't play dumb / Vagina's where you're really from." It's a clear attempt to highlight the hypocrisy of men oppressing women, but—like the pink pussy hats that are now synonymous with the 2017 Women's Marches that followed Trump's election—in essentializing the vagina, Pussy Riot's cis-sexist feminist rhetoric (perhaps inadvertently) excludes trans women.</p>
<p>That's not the only inconsistency in Pussy Riot's activism: Last fall, Tolokonnikova hosted an event at a London art gallery owned by Charles Saatchi, a prominent businessman who was once photographed assaulting his then-wife Nigella Lawson. Around the same time, it was revealed that Alyokhina—who no longer associates with Tolokonnikova or performs with Pussy Riot—<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/shes-in-pussy-riot-hes-on-the-far-right-how-maria-alyokhina-and-dmitry-enteo-fell-in-love">was dating Dmitry Enteo</a>, a former member of God's Will, a far-right Russian Orthodox extremist group known for beating up queer people at pride rallies.</p>
<p>These disappointing incongruities don't negate the good Pussy Riot has done in standing up to corrupt systems. But it's important to remember, in celebrating the group's rebellious spirit, that any revolution that excludes or marginalizes is cause for another revolution.</p>
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Wed, 14 Mar 2018 04:00:00 -0700The StrangerClock-Out Lounge Celebrates Its Opening by Bringing a Drag Terrorist to Seattlehttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/03/14/25904766/clock-out-lounge-celebrates-its-opening-by-bringing-a-drag-terrorist-to-seattle
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/03/14/25904766/clock-out-lounge-celebrates-its-opening-by-bringing-a-drag-terrorist-to-seattleChase Burns
Terrorism is bad, but Christeene's drag terrorism is pretty cool.
by Chase Burns
<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>itnessing a performance by Christeene is a bit like taking acid and stepping into a fighter jet. She is not for the moderate.</p>
<p>The Austin-based drag queen, performance artist, and rapper is booked to perform in Seattle on Saint Patrick's Day. Clock-Out Lounge, a brand-new Beacon Hill live-music venue helmed by former Chop Suey talent buyer Jodi Ecklund and ex-Showbox general manager Denise Burnside, is bringing the Texas "drag terrorist" to the Emerald City for Clock-Out's inaugural performance.</p>
<p>You read that correctly: Beacon Hill is getting a new live-music venue/bar/restaurant. It opens this week. It will serve Chicago pan-style deep-dish pizza.</p>
<p>In case you don't spend time with young queer punks, Christeene is a drag persona from experimental performer Paul Solieau. She's known for singles such as "Fix My Dick" and "Tears from My Pussy." If it wasn't clear from the titles, her performances are nasty and exciting, but most of all bewildering. Like weapons used in terrorism, Christeene's songs are designed to detonate a room. But unlike terrorism, they're enjoyable. And no one dies.</p>
<p>Emily Nokes, former <i>Stranger</i> music editor and current Tacocat member/celebrity, once described Christeene in this paper as a "stank-terror-drag phenomenon in a sweat-matted fright wig and uncomfortably blue contacts." I will add that I once saw Christeene perform while a dude rimmed her. Mid-rim she yelled, "Fuck safe spaces! This is war!"</p>
<p>But that was in New Orleans. I'm sure she'll be upright and virtuous for Seattle.</p>
<p>"I expect to see many repeat Christeene offenders," says Ecklund. "Christeene is an electrifying performer. The fully choreographed pieces, backup dancers... It's hard to look away from. She puts on one hell of a show."</p>
<p>Christeene's fans are devout. Her performances sometimes feel more like cult gatherings than drag shows. Ecklund says she booked Christeene for the first big show at Clock-Out Lounge partly because Seattle queers lack spaces where they can see shows.</p>
<p>"I think Seattle needs more places that support local acts," says Ecklund, who also booked Seattle-based acts the Loungettes and Ononos to open for Christeene. These acts are fittingly queer and weird: The Loungettes are a dark and dreamy, David Lynchian torch-song band, and Ononos are a spooky electro-punk three-piece who claim they've been making music together for several centuries.</p>
<p>Garrett Vance, a performer in the Loungettes who originally received his drag name (Mae Flood) from Christeene, says Seattle is lucky that Ecklund is "bringing her singular vision to a new spot in town." He says Ecklund, who was also behind Seattle's queer music and arts festival 'Mo-Wave, "was the person who made Chop Suey a vital hub for Capitol Hill culture for at least a decade."</p>
<p>Now Ecklund, Burnside, and their team bring their experience to Beacon Hill. It will be one of the only live-music venues in the area, and if Christeene is any indication, the place is going to be a nasty good time. <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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Wed, 14 Mar 2018 04:00:00 -0700The StrangerIn Defense of Jazz Fusionhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/28/25856417/in-defense-of-jazz-fusion
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/28/25856417/in-defense-of-jazz-fusionDave Segal
Musical legends Herbie Hancock and Billy Cobham are coming to Seattle, so let's talk about why your jazz-fusion hatred is misguided.
by Dave Segal
<p><span id="dropcap">F</span>usion has been denigrated ever since its late-'60s birth—usually by people who've heard little of it. The genre often provokes knee-jerk revulsion, accusations of wankery, or, worse, yawns. The early March appearances in Seattle by two fusion legends—keyboardist Herbie Hancock on March 1 and drummer Billy Cobham March 8 through 11—provide an opportunity to inform haters why their brains are clogged with excrement.</p>
<p>The major players of this combustible commingling of freewheeling jazz and Mensa-level rock and funk—Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Return to Forever, Jeff Beck, Tony Williams Lifetime, Larry Coryell, etc.—used to sell hundreds of thousands of LPs on major labels and, at their commercial peak during the first half of the '70s, could pack hockey arenas. It was boom times for people who dug complex, mercurial, and transcendentally beautiful music that took you on journeys to places most music never dared. It's music requiring ostentatious imaginations and phenomenal chops to execute. America was operating at peak open-mindedness. Purists despised this flamboyantly exciting stuff, but such traditionalists failed to realize that mixing elements of various genres often fosters innovation. Sadly, as with most radical styles, inspiration waned and even the titans began to sound flaccid.</p>
<p>{{ image:1 }}</p>
<p>Detractors denounce fusion as music for eggheads and middle-aged men who get a rush from identifying rhythms in 17/8 time. That's partially true, but it's not the whole story. Some fusion is sexy, albeit not in the manner to which most are accustomed. Feast your ears on Billy Cobham's <i>Spectrum</i>, Miles Davis's <i>On the Corner</i>, Herbie Hancock's <i>Head Hunters</i>, Julian Priester's <i>Love, Love</i>, or Weather Report's <i>Sweetnighter</i>, and get ready to get down and dirty.</p>
<p>Fusion has other assets, too. Play Return to Forever's bombastic, Nietzschean <i>Romantic Warrior</i> and feel powerful urges to overthrow small nations. Drop the needle on Herbie Hancock's <i>Sextant</i> and you're ready to traverse the jungles of Jupiter (at least that's what it felt like during my last acid trip). And have you heard the title track to Cobham's <i>Inner Conflicts</i>, the rare late-'70s fusion album that didn't succumb to disco cheesiness or yacht-rock smoothness? It's a polyrhythmic synth odyssey that makes you feel as if you're being devoured by the beast in <i>Alien</i>. And who doesn't want to experience <i>that</i>?</p>
<p>Granted, it would be unrealistic now to expect Hancock and Cobham to rise to the glories of their fusion zeniths 45 years ago. As with Olympic athletes, whom they resemble with their superhuman skills, few fusionists can maintain that level of optimal dexterity and limberness. Nevertheless, Herbie and Billy are rare survivors from that era of insane virtuosity. It would be foolish not to glimpse what they're up to now.</p>
<p>Hancock's wildly diverse career and hunger for advancements both technical and technological mean he's loath to rest on his laurels. Cobham's touring band, Crosswinds Project, plan to resurrect the roiling, Latinate thunder of his 1974 opus, <i>Crosswinds</i>. If we're lucky, this premise will yield the same thrills Cobham's former bandmate John McLaughlin summoned at the Moore Theatre last year with his Mahavishnu Orchestra material. <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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<a href="https://www.thestranger.com/events/25588935/billy-cobhams-crosswinds-project">Billy Cobham</a> plays <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/locations/23889/jazz-alley">Jazz Alley</a> March 8–11.Courtesy of the ArtistWed, 28 Feb 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerSpecial Explosion’s Teenage Rock Star Dreams Are Overhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25845865/special-explosions-teenage-rock-star-dreams-are-over
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25845865/special-explosions-teenage-rock-star-dreams-are-overMorgan Troper
On <i>To Infinity</i>, the indie rock prodigies of Special Explosion grapple with adulthood.
by Morgan Troper
<p>When Special Explosion dropped its debut EP in 2012, the Seattle band seemed poised to become Pacific Northwest indie rock’s next big thing. Most of its members were still in high school, but the group was already turning industry heads and setting the bar extraordinarily high for young, likeminded punks.</p>
<p>It’s no secret—or at least, it shouldn’t be—that being a young band is an uphill battle. Some adults don’t take you seriously even if you <i>shred</i>, and a nationwide scarcity of dedicated all-ages venues makes playing out an endurance test in bureaucratic horse shit. But over the phone, Special Explosion’s vocalist Lizzy Costello and guitarist Sebastian Deramat explain that being a young band came with benefits they may have taken for granted.</p>
<p>“All the responsibility of real life sort of fell on all of us at the same time,” Costello says. “Being able to balance real life stuff with music, being able to balance this band with the crushing reality of being an adult, and also living in a city that’s really difficult to live in as an artist.</p>
<p>“It got so much more complicated once people stopped handing everything to us. It was like, ‘Mom’s buying me a guitar, mom’s driving me to the gig.’ But now it’s like, ‘Oh, I can’t afford to buy a guitar because I have to pay my rent in Seattle. How do I balance that and not get super depressed?’ It isn’t a teenage rock-star dream anymore.”</p>
<p>It’s no surprise, then, that Special Explosion’s three releases form an arc paralleling these growing pains. On the band’s debut EP, Costello and her brother Andy, who plays guitar and writes much of Special Explosion’s music, sing in immaculate, Everly-esque close harmony over jittery paeans to college rock forebears like Archers of Loaf and Built to Spill. On 2014’s mini-LP <i>The Art of Mothering</i>, the group’s pathos begins to take shape: “You know you’re too big to be a kid/When you can’t fit in your Radio Flyer,” the Costello siblings croon in the title track.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2161236245/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2462185240/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://specialexplosion.bandcamp.com/album/to-infinity">To Infinity by Special Explosion</a></iframe>
<p>On 2017’s <i>To Infinity</i>, Special Explosion finds that precocity doesn’t amount to much when you’re an adult. Andy spends much of the record squinting through the soiled windshield separating his cloistered adult world from the limitless wonderland of childhood, and yearns for that youthful magic in “Cats.” “Gladiator” oscillates spasmodically between playground fantasy and adult ordinariness, and “Skeleton” almost seems like a eulogy for the teenage rock-star dream Lizzy mentions: “Rockstars don’t die/You’re just not one of them, and that’s alright.”</p>
<p><i>To Infinity</i>’s wistful, ornate arrangements compliment Andy’s musings on squandered innocence perfectly. Lead single “Fire” even boasts a borderline pop-radio luster similar to that of their Topshelf Records labelmates Wild Ones. Lizzy and Deramat partially attribute this to co-producer Mike Davis, an engineer at the Hall of Justice, Chris Walla’s studio in Seattle.</p>
<p>“I think once we realized we had access to all these cool instruments, it kind of changed what we thought we could do,” says Deramat. “For me it felt like, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be around all this nice shit ever again, so we probably have to put vibraphone on this song. It’s here, so why not?”</p>
<p>Despite these textural changes, Special Explosion is still very much the same band. With the exception of a bass player who departed early in the group’s lifespan and an added keyboardist, the lineup hasn’t changed. This is a remarkable accomplishment for any band, but especially for one that formed in high school.</p>
<p>“When you’re 15, the way you talk about bands is very wide-eyed and optimistic, and we bonded a lot on that when we started,” Deramat says. “For us, being able to have those years of genuine enthusiasm was really important.”</p>
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Thu, 22 Feb 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerMean Jeans’ Jingles Collection Is Wonderful Junkhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25815866/mean-jeans-jingles-collection-is-wonderful-junk
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25815866/mean-jeans-jingles-collection-is-wonderful-junkChris Stamm
Mean Jeans&rsquo; <i>Jingles Collection</i> is full of odes to Applebee&rsquo;s, Capri Sun, and more.
by Chris Stamm
<p>The goofball wits of Mean Jeans have never shied away from product placements. The band’s carefully constructed wasteoid universe, which lives in the brilliantly silly zone between <i>Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure</i> and <i>Rock ’n’ Roll High School</i>, is a burnout paradise of Cheerios and J<b>ä</b>ger and Kraft and Coors Light.</p>
<p>It should shock no one, then, that Portland’s pop-punk geniuses have just released a collection of original (and entirely unsolicited) jingles for some of their favorite brands. Did the world need songs dedicated to Skoal, Best Western, Applebee’s, and Selsun Blue? Not until Mean Jeans decided it did. As ridiculously catchy as it is conceptually sound, <i>Jingles Collection</i> continues the band’s undefeated streak. The <i>Stranger</i> spoke to singer/guitarist Billy Jeans about the perils and pleasures of shilling for wonderful junk.</p>
<hr>
<p><b><i>THE STRANGER</i></b><b>: I think I speak for everyone when I ask: Why?</b></p>
<p>BILLY JEANS: Every interview with a rock musician cites the Beatles as their earliest musical infatuation, but for us it was the early ’90s commercial jingles. So many good ones. Where do I begin? Creepy Crawlers. Crossfire. Juicy Fruit. Skip-It. Bagel Bites. Then of course there are the Ramones’ Steel Reserve jingles from ’95. My lifelong Ramones obsession has landed me at the definitive conclusion that the Steel Reserve jingles are the band at its greatest. So we’re following their lead.</p>
<hr>
<p><b>I noticed drummer Jeans Wilder singing more on this album. Would you say</b> <b><i>Jingles</i></b> <b>has given him a chance to step into the spotlight as a songwriter?</b></p>
<p>For sure. Jeans has always been a big part of Mean Jeans’ songwriting and singing, but when we realized jingles were our calling, he really started to flourish. The hooks, the brevity, the genre hopping—he’s got the jingles in him. He does a great Gavin Rossdale on our Selsun Blue jingle.</p>
<hr>
<p><b>Are you worried kids will start smoking after hearing “Camel Lights”?</b></p>
<p>No. Camel Lights don’t even exist anymore, which we regrettably overlooked during the production of this record.</p>
<hr>
<p><b>How many cases of Mountain Dew did you receive as payment for your Dew jingle?</b></p>
<p>Forty. And some sick T-shirts.</p>
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<hr>
<p><b>Did anyone in the band veto any brand endorsements while you were in the planning stages? Or were you all on the same page from the beginning?</b></p>
<p>A very perceptive question. Agreeing on product endorsements caused a few rifts within the band during the 24-hour production of this record. We wanted to do a jingle for a classic American restaurant that we all love. I’ll admit I was stuck on Sizzler, and Wilder was Applebee’s all the way. I argued that we’ve already endorsed Applebee’s in our song “2 Twisted 2 Luv U,” but the boys were able to calm me down. In the end we did both.</p>
<hr>
<p><b>Hot Pockets already has a pretty famous jingle. Was it hard to write a second Hot Pockets jingle in the shadow of the revered original?</b></p>
<p>Jeans Wilder has been humming his Hot Pockets jingle for years. When or why he wrote it, I don’t know. But it’s on par with the original.</p>
<hr>
<p><b>Mean Jeans is famous for its love of Jägermeister, and yet a Jägermeister jingle does not appear on this album. I’m wondering what happened.</b></p>
<p>We had a brief sponsorship from Jägermeister a couple years back. They hooked us up with a Jägermeister guitar—a great look, but abysmal tone—and some threads, but there were expectations of what the Jeans would do to reciprocate the endorsement. We failed to hold up our end of the deal, naturally. So in my mind that territory has been covered.</p>
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<hr>
<p><b>Okay, one quick hypothetical. You’re at the store. They’re out of Coors Light. What beer do you buy?</b></p>
<p>We have a song about this specific crisis. It’s called “Keystone Light.” So yeah, the answer is Keystone Light. I think it might literally be the exact same liquid as Coors Light.</p>
<hr>
<p><b>What is the best dish at Applebee’s?</b></p>
<p>$1 Long Island Iced Tea. Unbelievable bargain.</p>
<hr>
<p><b>It seems like the limitations of the jingle form allowed Mean Jeans to stretch out and experiment with different songwriting modes. It sounds to me like Mean Jeans can go anywhere from here. So what does the future hold?</b></p>
<p>Keep ’em guessin’.</p>
{{ image:1 }}
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Wed, 14 Feb 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerKendrick Lamar’s Black Panther Album Is Dazzling and Afrocentrichttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25815802/kendrick-lamars-black-panther-album-is-dazzling-and-afrocentric
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25815802/kendrick-lamars-black-panther-album-is-dazzling-and-afrocentricJenni Moore
An album that goes above and beyond the usual movie soundtrack.
by Jenni Moore
<p>Initially enchanted by lead single “All the Stars,” with its tribal drum beat and dazzling Afrocentric music video, I’ve been bumping the Kendrick Lamar-curated <i>Black Panther</i> soundtrack all week. The song (which features SZA) is a worthy representative of the rest of the album—and, as I’d hoped, it came on right as <i>Black Panther</i>’s end credits rolled for the audience to enjoy as we waited for the sequel-teasing stingers.</p>
<p>In addition to producing original music for the album, Kung Fu Kenny appears on roughly half of the 14 tracks. After seeing the latest Marvel installment (<a href="https://www.portlandmercury.com/film/2018/02/14/19675265/black-panther-review-marvels-trillest-movie-yet">and discovering how unapologetically Black it is</a>), Lamar’s integral involvement in the movie’s music makes even more sense. There’s a humming tribal undercurrent throughout the album, with African beats, chants, and various verbal references to Wakanda and other elements of <i>Black Panther</i>. Lamar is famous for his unconventional use of jazz influences and artists on his critically acclaimed album <i>To Pimp a Butterfly</i>; here, he incorporates a variety of styles and artists on the track list.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GfCqMv--ncA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>“X,” with Schoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, and Saudi, stands out as an immediate favorite, though I didn’t notice when (or if) it was used in the movie. “Pray for Me,” with the Weeknd, sets the perfect mood for kicking off the film’s deadly casino mission, and there’s also gorgeous R&B from UK artist Jorja Smith (“I Am”) and a playful Travis Scott-Kendrick Lamar collab (“Big Shot”).</p>
<p>On songs like “Paramedic” and “King’s Dead” (with rapper Future and singer/songwriter James Blake), Lamar embodies a wrathful king and an African warrior. The sinister song roils with references to Erik Killmonger, <i>Black Panther</i>’s villain<i>—</i>at one point toward the end, Lamar even proclaims, “All hail King Killmonger.”</p>
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<p>Another highlight is the festive-yet-somber “Seasons,” which features Sacramento rapper Mozzy, MC Reason, and Johannesburg native Sjava, who raps his entire verse in the Zulu language before a soulfully sung chorus. The English verses are equally appropriate to the subject matter, with lines like “Trapped in the system, traffickin’ drugs/Modern-day slavery, African thugs/We go to war for this African blood.”</p>
<p>I missed <i>a lot</i> of these themes in the music before seeing the movie, so I’m guessing that <i>Black Panther: The Album</i> gets better and more dissectible the more times I see the movie. And I plan on seeing it as many times as humanly possible.</p>
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Wed, 14 Feb 2018 04:00:00 -0800The Stranger“It’s Gotten a Lot More Scary,” Says Helium’s Guitarist and Singer Mary Timonyhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25811788/its-gotten-a-lot-more-scary-says-heliums-guitarist-and-singer-mary-timony
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/02/14/25811788/its-gotten-a-lot-more-scary-says-heliums-guitarist-and-singer-mary-timonySean Nelson
The musician reflects on how much the world has changed in the last 20 years.
by Sean Nelson
<p><span id="dropcap">S</span>hortly before getting on the phone to interview Mary Timony, I had a strong memory from the fall of 1997. I was talking to a guy I only ever saw at Orpheum, and I asked what he thought of the then-new Helium record, The Magic City.</p>
<p>He made a puckery face and suggested that Timony and her bandmates had sold out to the corporate demand for electronic music by putting a keyboard line on “Leon’s Space Song.”</p>
<p>How better to illustrate how wrong everyone was about everything back then? But 21 years later, Timony isn’t so sure.</p>
<p>“Yeah, that keyboard part sucks,” she laughs. “I kind of agree with that person. I just made a bad call on the actual sound of the keyboard. I’ve always regretted that decision, honestly.”</p>
<p>Aesthetic regrets aside, her current tour, on which she is performing her old band’s material (the show comes to Neumos on February 20), has made it clear that things have changed in the 20 years since Helium broke up.</p>
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<p>“It’s definitely a different world than it was in the ’90s,” she says. “There was the mainstream and then there was the counterculture. That whole framework doesn’t exist at all anymore. Everything’s so splintered, and there’s just so much music, and so many bands… This is now a career that a lot of people have. And it’s normal—it’s not like a rebellious thing to do.”</p>
<p>Has that changed how she relates to it? “Maybe a little bit, ’cause I’m almost 50 and… things are different. It’s gotten a lot more scary. I feel like I was more angsty at one point, and now I’m just focused on the process of making music.”</p>
<p>Timony’s process has been a reliably fascinating subject throughout her career, which began as lead guitarist in the short-lived but hugely important DC indie punk band Autoclave. Next came Helium, in which her advanced guitar skills were somewhat at odds with the stumbling aesthetic of the era. Their songs, which she wrote, offered an almost sneaky marriage of pop immediacy and harmonic complexity. </p>
<p>She cultivated this recipe over the course of four rich, weird, wondrous solo albums—which she describes as “some crazy records that people hated” (I didn’t)—and the almost all-the-way-great side project Wild Flag (also featuring Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney and Rebecca Cole). </p>
<p>Her current band, Ex Hex, is a perfect guitar-bass-drums trio, which strips away all extraneous elements in favor of visceral, ecstatic rock ’n’ roll.</p>
<p>The germ of Ex Hex’s radical simplicity might be found in the Helium song “Baby’s Going Underground”: “Maybe someday we’ll get back, get back / The rock life and the heart attack / Baby likes it when it hurts like that / A million days after the, after the fact.”</p>
<p>What was once tongue-in-cheek now reads as prophetic, almost like Timony was sending her future self a message—and us, too. And though it hasn’t quite been a million days since Helium, it’s a joy to discover that those songs still hurt like that. <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border="0" /></p>
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Wed, 14 Feb 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerWelcome to Kyle Craft’s Full Circle Nightmarehttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/31/25769963/welcome-to-kyle-crafts-full-circle-nightmare
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/31/25769963/welcome-to-kyle-crafts-full-circle-nightmareBen Salmon
The Portland singer-songwriter releases his swaggering sophomore album.
by Ben Salmon
<p><span id="dropcap">W</span>hen Kyle Craft made his debut album—2016’s <i>Dolls of Highland</i>—he did so on a laptop in a laundry room in Shreveport, Louisiana. He played almost all the parts himself (except for some drum tracks), and recorded with the freedom that comes with being relatively unknown.</p>
<p>By contrast, Craft made his new record <i>Full Circle Nightmare</i> with a full band in a real studio in his new home of Portland, with producer (and Decemberists guitarist) Chris Funk watching over the proceedings. And this time, he recorded with a successful debut in his rearview mirror—released via Sub Pop Records, no less—but also with the psychic weight of sophomore-album expectations.</p>
<p>Craft says the toughest part of making <i>Nightmare</i> wasn’t wrangling a band, or adjusting to the possibilities of a studio, or even knowing there were people out there eagerly awaiting his next record. It was loosening his grip on his own songs.</p>
<p>“I’m definitely not a tyrant in the studio by any means, but I certainly have a real problem letting go of exactly how I think the song should be,” he says. “But I let go by the time we were in there... We recorded live [as a group], so we couldn’t really go back in and change stuff. We had to get it right. So I’d hear something and I’d be like, ‘Ohh, I don’t know...’ and Funk would be like, ‘Kyle, chill out. It’ll be fine.’”</p>
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<p>Funk was right—<i>Full Circle Nightmare</i> is a rousing sophomore effort. Though his Sub Pop affiliation might suggest he’s an indie rock artist, and his acoustic guitar might paint him as a folk singer/songwriter, Craft’s music is pure rock ’n’ roll, with touches of showy Bowie glam and his Southern roots coursing through every song. Sometimes, he’s bar-room bluesy like the Stones (“Fever Dream Girl”); others, he bares the soul of a seasoned storyteller (“The Rager”). Often, his sturdy combo of twang, rock, and brass—as found on “Exile Rag”—sounds like the Band, if they’d come up in New Orleans rather than Canada.</p>
<p>No matter his particular aesthetic at any given moment, one thing’s for sure: In a world of mewling vocalists and evasive songwriters, Craft not only acknowledges the autobiographical nature of his tunes—he absolutely belts them out whenever he’s given the chance. The guy is a powerhouse singer who fronts a raucous rock band, and those don’t come along that often anymore.</p>
<p>“That was always the music I was really drawn to,” Craft says. “I mean, I’m getting up there and rocking out and being like, ‘Aww, my heart’s broken.’ And that’s already ridiculous. But I think it’s even more ridiculous to get up there and actually take yourself seriously.”</p>
<p>Craft’s musical style is as much about personal growth as it is about artistic expression. The best way to grow, he says, is to grow into yourself, and not into anything else.</p>
<p>“If I gave a shit about what anybody thought about me, I would not be able to do what I’m doing,” Craft explains. “It’s like looking at a bird on a wire and being like, ‘Well, that’s a shitty songbird.’ It’s just doing what it does! And that’s just what I wanna try to do.” <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border="0" />
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Wed, 31 Jan 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerMultimedia Spectacular PYLON III Has Catastrophic Choreography, an Enigmatic Score, and Unexpected Notes of Hopehttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/31/25760565/multimedia-spectacular-pylon-iii-has-catastrophic-choreography-an-enigmatic-score-and-unexpected-notes-of-hope
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/31/25760565/multimedia-spectacular-pylon-iii-has-catastrophic-choreography-an-enigmatic-score-and-unexpected-notes-of-hopeDave Segal
If you go to only one avant-garde dance performance this year, make it <i>PYLON III</i>.
by Dave Segal
<p><span class="dropcap">E</span>ven if you think you don't like avant-garde dance, you should still consider checking out <i>PYLON III</i>. Its predecessor, <i>PYLON II</i>, in 2016, blew the minds of the King Street Station crowd with its harrowing beauty and power. It felt at once zeitgeisty and like a cautionary tale with undertones of George Orwell's <i>1984</i> on steroids. I've gone to two avant-dance events in my life, but <i>PYLON II</i>—choreographed by Coleman Pester and scored by Monika Khot—riveted me with its physical and emotional turbulence, even though I lacked the terminology to describe the dancers' lithe contortions and fraught feints.</p>
<p><i>PYLON III</i> marks the conclusion of Pester's trilogy. Each piece examines "complex systems of control using highly physical choreography, architectural set pieces, and a variety of analog and digital technologies all together in a tense relationship," Pester says. <i>PYLON III</i>'s other collaborators include artists Alex Boeschenstein and Ben Chaykin, and writer/actor Stefan Richmond.</p>
<p>"Alex has been aggregating different types of video—patchworks of photogrammetry, aerial drone footage, 3-D game design, and live-feed surveillance to make visual stimuli for the audience," Pester says. "While Ben has been focused on integrating robotics into the set design. Stefan has created five monologues that will provide the audience with a narrative through line."</p>
<p>What distinguishes <i>III</i> from <i>II</i>, Pester says, is its emphasis on hope. It's an odd tack to take when the situation for people of leftist, compassionate sensibilities—including queer/nonbinary folks such as Pester—seems grim. Did a sense of desperation amid misguided governing and resurgent ideologies like white supremacy lead to this thematic shift?</p>
<p>Pester relates that the bulk of their work so far "has been anxiety-fueled, driven by struggle, or built upon performative tension. While this is still true for <i>PYLON III</i>, I also wanted to carve out space for something <i>lighter</i> to exist."</p>
<p>Going against their usual tendencies, Pester initially sought the tougher challenge of finding a happy ending to the <i>PYLON</i> series, even though 2017 represented one of their most traumatic years, personally and via Trump's policies. "I find hope in unusual places. I feel a tangible piece within myself that is attached to visions of a utopian society."</p>
<p>As for Khot, she admits that <i>PYLON III</i> demands "more complexity and nuance" than its predecessor. "This score is not going to be as outwardly bleak as <i>PYLON II</i>. It may hurt, but only deep inside. For
<i>PYLON II</i>, I was focused on the horror that is human-created-non-human-
mass-systems-of-oppression, and it seemed as though using obvious organic sounds that trigger memories of these structures (like steam from a factory, motorized churning) would represent that horror well. There's nothing scarier to me than hearing metal being scraped together."</p>
<p>Scoring <i>PYLON III</i> proved to be harder for Khot to conceptualize. "I'm attempting to exemplify the aftermath of the dystopic nature of <i>PYLON II</i>, like a fire or a demolished building creating debris that casts the sky with a beautiful purple haze. However, there will be allusions to <i>PYLON II</i>, and parts of the score will be just as crushing/apocalyptic, though intended to be felt as a nightmarish memory." <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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Wed, 31 Jan 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerLil Xan Is the New Face of Sad Raphttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/24/25745423/lil-xan-is-the-new-face-of-sad-rap
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/24/25745423/lil-xan-is-the-new-face-of-sad-rapCameron Crowell
Sad rapper Lil Xan is getting ready to drop his debut LP, <i>Total Xanarchy</i>.
by Cameron Crowell
<p><span id="dropcap">A</span> year ago, Diego Leanos was onstage at a concert taking photos of SoundCloud rapper $teven Cannon when his camera was stolen. After the theft, he decided to take up rapping, because studio time was cheaper than buying a new camera.</p>
<p>Now known as <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/events/25637746/lil-xan-teve-cannon">Lil Xan</a>, the 21-year-old former Xanax dealer is the newest face of the “sad rap” movement. Sadness itself isn’t a new theme in hiphop—just look at Tupac’s music—but the wave of rappers led by Lil Uzi Vert and the late Lil Peep (who recently died of an overdose) share a connection to another genre: emo. In a recent <i>Noisey Raps</i> profile, Leanos calls his hometown of Redlands, California, “Deadlands” with the contempt of a disaffected suburban youth.</p>
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<p>Lil Xan will release his debut LP, <i>Total Xanarchy</i>, sometime this year, but his breakthrough single “Betrayed” is an upbeat banger cut with flashes of pain. Over producer Bobby Johnson’s hazy, piano-driven trap beat, Leanos raps about sex, drugs, and money in his signature raspy voice. But by the end of the song, he’s barely able to mumble, “Xans gon’ take you/Xans gon’ betray you,” referencing his addiction to the prescription anxiety medication. On “Slingshot,” Leanos reminds listeners that his struggle with minor celebrity, addiction, and severe anxiety is ongoing: “I don’t pop fucking Xans/I might pop a Norco” (a prescription painkiller he’s also trying to quit).</p>
<p>Leanos’ cautionary, anti-Xanax lyrics almost seem like the hiphop version of an afterschool special, with the maximalist melodrama of emo. But this isn’t emo that centers on angsty white kids living in McMansions; instead, it reflects the experience of kids growing up in the middle of the Great Recession, the foreclosure crisis, the opioid epidemic, and the rapid gentrification of American cities that force poor people of color further to the margins. Lil Xan’s first singles only begin to describe it. <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border="0" />
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Wed, 24 Jan 2018 14:03:18 -0800The StrangerJen Cloher Doesn’t Mince Wordshttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/24/25745391/jen-cloher-doesnt-mince-words
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/24/25745391/jen-cloher-doesnt-mince-wordsBen Salmon
Jen Cloher discusses her new, self-titled album and her relationship with Courtney Barnett.
by Ben Salmon
<p><span id="dropcap">J</span>en Cloher’s life changed significantly over the past few years as her partner, Courtney Barnett, became a world-renowned, in-demand rock ’n’ roll artist.</p>
<p>On her new and appropriately self-titled album, Cloher wastes no time in painting an unflinchingly honest portrait of that life and those changes. “You’d been gone so long, you could have been dead,” she sings on opening track “Forgot Myself.” “Piles of books you bought but never read/Paint a still life of your side of the bed/Patti Smith poems, a hair tie, and some vitamins/There’s only so much you can say in a text/Reading between the lines is hazardous/A slow reply can really mess with your head.”</p>
<p>“Forgot Myself” is just one of the songs on Cloher’s record that addresses Barnett’s success and the effect it’s had on their relationship. In “Sensory Memory,” she explains why she doesn’t tag along on all of her partner’s tours, and the closing track, “Dark Art,” ends with a sweet couplet: “You seem closer than you are/Loving you is like a bright star.”</p>
<p>“Courtney has had to spend a lot of time away from home and away from me, and that is tough in any relationship,” she says. “But we’ve worked at it and learned a lot along the way about how to be in a long-distance relationship successfully.”</p>
<p>To be clear, <i>Jen Cloher</i> is not all about Courtney Barnett. It is, unmistakably, all about Jen Cloher. Modestly recorded and remarkably self-assured, the album’s straightforward arrangements—jangling guitars (including some played by Barnett), taut rhythms, and a raw Rolling Stones-meets-PJ Harvey vibe—leave plenty of space for her plainspoken observations about love, politics, and life as an artist in Australia. Cloher doesn’t mince words, no matter the subject.</p>
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<p>“The one thing I wanted to do with this album was to be as honest as I could be,” she says. “I wanted to have a direct conversation with the listener. I think that’s important at the moment, in music and art. We’re living in a time where people can feel like they don’t have a voice. I think when you let people in, when you talk about things that are meaningful to you, that it’s a great source of connection.”</p>
<p><i>Jen Cloher</i> also offers wisdom and perspective from someone who’s earned plenty of both over the years. Cloher has released four solo albums and oversees her and Barnett’s busy label, Milk Records, as well as a music mentorship program in their hometown of Melbourne. She uses one song on the album, “Great Australian Bite,” to highlight the financial and logistical challenges that hamper Aussie bands trying to go global.</p>
<p>For example, Cloher says it costs about $20,000 per week to take a four-piece band on the road in Europe or America, and that’s if you’re frugal about lodging and travel arrangements. Thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever for Australian bands to be heard, but according to Cloher, it’s as hard as it’s ever been for those same bands to tour new markets across the world.</p>
<p>“I’m not afraid to talk deeply about my experience in the music industry and what it’s like to be an artist in Australia,” Cloher says. “We live in this massive country with a small population, right down the end of the world. There is definitely a sense of isolation growing up here. It’s hard to make a career from the arts anywhere in the world, but I think Australian artists really have the odds stacked against them financially.” <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border="0" />
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Wed, 24 Jan 2018 13:51:00 -0800The StrangerSpontaneous Combustion Is a DIY Classical Festivalhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/17/25721196/spontaneous-combustion-is-a-diy-classical-festival
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/17/25721196/spontaneous-combustion-is-a-diy-classical-festivalRobert Ham
The traveling roadshow rolls through town.
by Robert Ham
<p><span id="dropcap">C</span>lassical music isn’t a genre with terribly deep roots in DIY culture. Composers old and new rely on wealthy benefactors and grants to fund their work, and putting on a concert or festival usually requires a fair amount of institutional support from foundations, donors, or sponsors.</p>
<p>That’s just one reason why the upcoming Spontaneous Combustion New Music Festival is such a standout on this year’s classical music calendar: The entire event was conceived, booked, organized, and funded by one person, musician/composer Scott Anthony Shell.</p>
<p>A bookkeeper by day, Shell has been pouring all of his time and rapidly dwindling spare cash into bringing a gaggle of artists—including New York’s Sandbox Percussion and Boston-based ensemble Hub New Music, who specialize in contemporary classical—to the West Coast to perform.</p>
<p>“There are grants for this sort of thing, but they are very limited and require you to have a track record of one to three years,” Shell says. “So, basically, I’m having to fund it with what little funds I have, working full-time. My partner is chipping in, too. I’m hoping that we’ll get enough ticket sales to pay everybody that we need to pay.”</p>
<p>Getting people to show up for events like this is one of the reasons Shell undertook this quixotic task. After many years of writing and performing in avant-rock ensembles (including a group that toured with outsider artist extraordinaire Wesley Willis), the former Chicagoan committed himself to modern composition and started attending new music festivals around the United States, where he noticed a dismaying trend.</p>
<p>“There just weren’t a lot of people in the audience,” Shell remembers. “It was mostly the musicians themselves or the composers. As I was listening to this music, I started to think, ‘What’s a good angle to go about sharing the music and trying to build an audience for it?’”</p>
<p>His solution is ambitious: essentially a traveling roadshow of seven contemporary classical ensembles and performers playing 10 different cities in Washington, Oregon, and California. To sweeten the deal for his potential audience, he planned to fill the bill with players from the East Coast who rarely, if ever, do shows in this part of the country.</p>
<p>As sometimes happens with lofty objectives, Shell had to scale back his dream considerably. After a funding source fell through, he was only able to afford to set up seven concerts for Portland and Seattle, and only three in Eugene. The rest of the events will now be single concerts featuring one artist.</p>
<p>The good news is that he couldn’t have found a better and more game performer to take on the full 10-day affair than cellist Ashley Bathgate. Originally from New York State and now residing in the Big Apple, the young musician is a member of the renowned ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars and often plays solo, utilizing a laptop and loop pedals to adapt more complex pieces for a single instrument.</p>
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<p>“I’m used to going to a city, doing one concert, and maybe another, and then going home,” Bathgate says of her participation in the inaugural SCNMF. “I like the idea of performing every day in this kind of road trip tour. And I love that all the spaces are not typical concert venues. There’s churches and halls you can rent out. Neither Scott nor I know what they’re going to be like, so I’m coming with a few different programs to adapt to some of the spaces.”</p>
<p>For her Seattle appearance on February 1, Bathgate will use the full range of technology at her disposal. The program includes an adaptation of Steve Reich’s <i>Cello Counterpoint</i>, which features a live player adding short staccato phrases over the top of a prerecorded string section, and Martin Bresnick’s <i>Parisot</i>, a triumphant work for 12 cellos that she’ll bring to life with the assistance of her laptop.</p>
<p>The rest of the concerts for the festival’s Seattle stop will be equally audacious, with performers tackling modern works from composers such as Lou Harrison, György Ligeti, and Laura Kaminsky. It’s exactly the mix of forward-thinking sounds and ideas that Shell was hoping to bring to these events, even if he can’t do all the shows he’d originally planned.</p>
<p>“I wanted everyone to play music they were comfortable with and do what they do, rather than impose upon them, ‘You have to play these composers,’” he says. “I did encourage them to program a piece from somebody that was well-known. Certain composers bring out an audience. But I also think that because this is something new and exciting, it will be attractive all on its own.” <img src="/images/rec_star.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="recommended" border="0" />
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Wed, 17 Jan 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerDark Side of the Croon—Deeper into the Unique Voice of Circuit Des Yeuxhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/17/25708409/dark-side-of-the-croon-deeper-into-the-unique-voice-of-circuit-des-yeux
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/17/25708409/dark-side-of-the-croon-deeper-into-the-unique-voice-of-circuit-des-yeuxDave Segal
Dark folk-rock goddess and reluctant rising star Circuit Des Yeux would rather be an orb of light.
by Dave Segal
<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>here's a moment in Annette Peacock's "I'm the One" where her scat singing merges with the song's synthesizer oscillations. The effect is stunning woman-machine synergy that elevates a classic track to "holy shit!" status. In a more subdued but no less riveting manner, Chicago musician Haley Fohr manifests similar throat-instrument harmony with Circuit Des Yeux. But rather than analog-synth circuitry, Fohr's voice evokes the woody, lugubrious timbre of a cello, or even a bass saxophone. Nobody else in rock or pop today sings like Haley Fohr.</p>
<p>It would be enough if Fohr were simply to improvise a cappella, but she's also a songwriter and guitarist of rare complexity and delicacy, with a fantastic backing band—all renowned for their improvisational prowess: drummer Tyler Damon, upright bassist Andrew Scott Young, and keyboardist/guitarist Cooper Crain.</p>
<p>Fohr really began to blossom with Circuit Des Yeux's fifth album, 2015's <i>In Plain Speech</i>, as she enlarged her instrumental palette and expanded her sound to a Midwestern approximation of the chamber-
orchestral severity and stark beauty found in Nico's <i>The Marble Index</i> and the eldritch folk of Comus's <i>First Utterance</i>.</p>
<p><i>In Plain Speech</i> was revelatory, and Circuit Des Yeux's show at Lo-Fi supporting it confirmed that they were staking out singular territory. It was as if Scott Walker's stormy balladry and Tim Buckley's vocal acrobatics had converged in the body of a twentysomething woman. "Fantasize the Scene" represents <i>In Plain Speech</i>'s apotheosis, bearing a melody of shattering poignancy in a song that moves with the grandeur of a saint's funeral procession.</p>
<p>In a 2016 interview, Fohr mentioned that CDY taps into her spiritual side. During our recent phone conversation, Fohr reveals that this project is a vehicle for transcendence—and that it saved her life. When she was 17 and studying nuclear engineering at Purdue University, she flunked out and was dealing with "some really awful personal things." Forced to move back in with her parents, Fohr "played [her] way out of a manic depression, and held on to that iota of light, and it became all-encompassing, the only thing I could really lean on."</p>
<p>Returning to Fohr's unique voice, it's remarkable how it's lowered in pitch over the years. When asked if there's a conscious decision to break the mold of how women vocalists are perceived or if it's simply an evolutionary process, she says the change has been "completely outside of me—it's scary."</p>
<p>However, Fohr takes umbrage at the idea of trying to redefine how women sing. "I'm not thinking about being a woman at all when I'm singing; I'm just thinking about having a body and being allowed to express myself. Sometimes people become scared by the sounds that come out of me, but I find the singing to be empowering—and once I get into it, I certainly let go of consciousness. That's where the transcendence comes in."</p>
<p>Singing and playing these deeply personal CDY songs onstage under bright lights and with all eyes on her makes Fohr uncomfortable (hence keeping her face obscured by hair while performing), but she feels a responsibility to her audience. "If there was a way for me to become this orb of light and still reach people onstage, that would be ideal." <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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Wed, 17 Jan 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerHow Spoon Helped Me Find My Seattle Groovehttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/03/25680501/how-spoon-helped-me-find-my-seattle-groove
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/03/25680501/how-spoon-helped-me-find-my-seattle-grooveLeilani Polk
Spoon lifted the funk.
by Leilani Polk
<p><span id="dropcap">G</span><i>a Ga Ga Ga Ga</i> was the album that made me like Spoon. But Seattle made me <i>love</i> the Austin indie-rock band. Which, without context, probably doesn't make much sense.</p>
<p>Let me explain.</p>
<p>I came to Seattle from the Tampa Bay area for a fresh start—for love and nature and music and legal weed, because I wanted to feel inspired and challenged, because I needed to live in a city among people I could actually relate to. But I misjudged just how hard it would be to leave a place where I'd spent most of my life, parents who'd never been farther than a 20-minute car ride away, friends I'd spent decades acquiring, a writing gig I'd had for more than a dozen years covering a music scene that became dear to me. Even if it was the very monotony of all these things that drove me out, I had trouble fighting feelings of isolation once I was actually living in Seattle. I couldn't avoid wondering whether I'd made a mistake leaving it all behind.</p>
<p>I hadn't realized how much my self-confidence was tied to how comfortable I felt in my well-known, unchanging reality. The city that had captivated me in numerous visits became big and daunting and cold to me as a resident, the people seemed aloof—or maybe I wasn't as good at befriending strangers as I assumed, I was unemployed for the first time since age 15 (and had fewer prospects than I hoped), and the creative well I expected to overflow once I arrived was frustratingly dry. I didn't feel lost, exactly, but the longer I spent in this state of seeming suspension, the more timid and pathetic and out of sorts I felt.</p>
<p>I listened to a lot of Pandora while roaming and brooding—and for some reason, it was the breezy, bouncing groove of Spoon's "Don't You Evah" that sliced through the miasma of my own dark thoughts. "Bet you got it all planned right/Bet you never worry/Never even feel a fright," Britt Daniel sang snottily, as if mocking me, his vocals warm and sandbur-scratchy. I paused, remembered <i>Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga</i>—the album that made Spoon indie-rock famous (and was celebrated with a 10th-anniversary reissue in October). The height of my like for them came after their sixth ear-wormy LP, but I didn't have any real attachment to it or to Spoon up until that moment, when an upwelling of love and appreciation hit me like a ton of bricks and abruptly lightened my mood.</p>
<p>I retrieved <i>Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga</i> from an old flash drive and spent the next week listening to it on repeat as I wandered. The bouncing, grooving rhythms got my arms swinging and transformed trudges into strides, songs took on new meaning, lyrics becoming pointed and speaking to my situation, or providing cheer, drive, an easing of spiritual tension, like: "Come loosen up/So hung up/Come count them ways to forever" ("Rhythm & Soul"), or "Somehow this place tastes just like an attack/A hundred-yard stare of a kiss" ("Finer Feelings"), or "I want to forget how conviction fits, but can I get out from under it? Can I get it out of me?" ("The Underdog"). I was chanting choruses like they were mantras ("Don't make me a target" was a favorite).</p>
<p>It lasted all of a week, but that was all it took to lift the funk. Spoon helped me start to find my Seattle legs. <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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Wed, 03 Jan 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerCome for the Long-Lost Stravinsky, Stay for the Weird-Ass Ligetihttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/03/25648756/come-for-the-long-lost-stravinsky-stay-for-the-weird-ass-ligeti
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2018/01/03/25648756/come-for-the-long-lost-stravinsky-stay-for-the-weird-ass-ligetiRich Smith
Hearing the lost music of Stravinsky will be like seeing a new play by Shakespeare.
by Rich Smith
<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>he classical music world went nuts when a Russian musicologist discovered Igor Stravinsky's long-lost <i>Funeral Song</i>, Op. 5, at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory during a move in 2015.</p>
<p>Nobody had heard the music in more than one hundred years, and the piece, which is a 12-minute homage to his music teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, was performed only once before the score was misplaced in the library.</p>
<p>Fans and critics were especially excited because Stravinsky, whose ballet <i>The Rite of Spring</i> sparked a riot in Paris and opened one of the first portals to modernism, was reported to be very proud of the work. He called <i>Funeral Song</i> the best thing he'd written before "The Firebird," which is widely regarded as his breakthrough orchestral piece.</p>
<p>But then a funny thing happened. Once everybody heard the music, which made its world premiere last year at the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, they all kind of agreed that it wasn't the best thing they'd ever heard. It was good! An interesting, elegiac tribute to an old teacher, a fascinating musical text that prefigured in some ways his later work and that revealed hidden influences. But the general consensus was that young Stravinsky was overselling his early work.</p>
<p>Still, Seattle Symphony music director Ludovic Morlot, who will be conducting the West Coast premiere of <i>Funeral Song</i> <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/locations/539737/benaroya-hall-s-mark-taper-foundation-auditorium">at Benaroya Hall on January 4 and 6</a>, helped me see the music in a new way.</p>
<p>"Imagine putting your eyes on a new play by Shakespeare," he told me over the phone, his enthusiasm overflowing. "Even if it's not as marvelous as the other ones, the fact that you're sharing it for the first time with a new audience is very moving."</p>
<p>While the Stravinsky song will be the most historically significant piece of music on the bill, the most musically interesting is György Ligeti's Violin Concerto, which will be performed by Augustin Hadelich. (Ligeti is the guy whose music Stanley Kubrick used to color <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>, and Hadelich is the guy who helped the symphony bring in its second <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2016/02/18/23587083/seattle-symphony-scoops-up-another-grammy-this-time-for-best-classical-instrumental-solo">Grammy</a> with his solo performance of Dutilleux's violin concerto.)</p>
<p>In his concerto, Ligeti uses a technique called <i>scordatura,</i> which is a way of tuning stringed instruments so that some of them are slightly off from one another. There are also brief blasts of rare, strangely tuned ocarinas.</p>
<p>"It's very weird," Morlot said. "Visually, it's almost like you're overlaying a Monet with a Pollock and seeing what the result will be. All the harmonics ring beautifully, and then suddenly someone takes a red pencil to the Monet and starts to do some horrible things with it. It gives you vertigo, you start to lose all your references for scale, but it's also irreverent and quite humorous."</p>
<p>These two wild pieces, Morlot told me, share their roots with the evening's final event: <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/events/25461907/mozart-symphony-no-39">Mozart's beloved and sprightly Symphony No. 39</a>. "Though Stravinsky and Ligeti are both thoroughly modern composers, they both loved Mozart's operas," Morlot said. "So there's some connection there: Both Ligeti and Stravinsky set their modern vocabularies within classical frames."</p>
<p>If you don't feel like you'll get the allusions, just enjoy the program's tonal wave. The concert will start you off in Ligeti's strange world, take you back through Stravinsky's more recognizable but sadder one, and then finish with one of the happiest pieces of music you didn't know you knew. <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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Wed, 03 Jan 2018 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerManatee Commune's Millennial ADHDhttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/12/20/25649753/manatee-communes-millennial-adhd
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/12/20/25649753/manatee-communes-millennial-adhdAmber Cortes
Not your typical EDM outfit.
by Amber Cortes
<p><span id="dropcap">G</span>rant Eadie just can't seem to stop himself from trying new things.</p>
<p>A classically trained musician versed in multiple instruments including viola, violin, and guitar, the 24-year-old behind Manatee Commune is pretty much a one-man band and sound machine. Recently, he's been getting to know drum kits. "I think it's just a classic example of millennial ADHD," Eadie jokes. "I get bored really easily."</p>
<p>Luckily, the millennial restlessness that drives him to experiment is what makes Manatee Commune such an atypical EDM outfit.</p>
<p>His <a href="https://manateecommune.bandcamp.com/album/manatee-commune">self-titled 2016 album</a> was informed by a range of genres, full of deep sound textures and melodic twists and turns. He's also got a penchant for finding the right voices to complement his off-kilter, down-tempo style—like Northwest singer-songwriter Marina Price, on 2014's chill and dreamy <a href="https://manateecommune.bandcamp.com/album/brush"><i>Brush</i></a>, or Detroit-based Siena Liggins, who appears on Manatee Commune's latest single, <a href="https://manateecommune.bandcamp.com/track/like-me-ft-siena-liggins">"Like Me."</a></p>
<p>Eadie also uses samples and field recordings taken from the woods of the Pacific Northwest, "white noise" that he says infuses his already organic-sounding beats with "a subdued sense of warmth. I feel like the Northwest in particular has this special sound quality that's really mysterious and magical."</p>
<p>Growing up in the DIY scene in Bellingham, Eadie started out going the standard indie-rock-band route, but then found he wanted to make music by himself, and "it just turned into electronic music, kind of by accident." Originally, he was drawn to the heady, weed-saturated deep house vibes of Floating Points and Gold Panda, but soon decided he wanted his live shows to have a little more... energy. Every artist has their calling, and Eadie realized that his was getting people to shake their ass.</p>
<p>"I wanted people to dance at the shows, and get down and be crazy and do weird stuff," he explains. "And so it became a dance music thing in a really natural way, because I just wanted the people to react."</p>
<p>In the Pacific Northwest, a region that tends to lean more toward gentle head-bobbing than wild dancing, it's a challenge Eadie seems up for, and reflected in a sound that is super dancey but laid-back, fun but not frantic, dreamy but not too sleek.</p>
<p>And Manatee Commune's <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/events/25590830/manatee-commune">December 30 and 31</a> shows at Neumos promise to be a visually rich, light-saturated extravaganza, albeit in "a really, really tasteful way." For the first time, Eadie and his lighting designer had an actual budget to work with, and they may have overdone it a bit.</p>
<p>"I spent like five hundred dollars on bubble machines alone," he says.</p>
<p>On top of all that decadence, since it's Manatee Commune, there will also be the mandatory mix of weirdness and ass shaking, so get ready to get down. <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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Wed, 20 Dec 2017 04:00:00 -0800The StrangerRock Goddesses Thunderpussy Signed to a Major Label and Are Poised to Blow Uphttps://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/12/20/25633487/rock-goddesses-thunderpussy-signed-to-a-major-label-and-are-poised-to-blow-up
https://www.thestranger.com/music/2017/12/20/25633487/rock-goddesses-thunderpussy-signed-to-a-major-label-and-are-poised-to-blow-upDave Segal
This might be the last New Year's Eve celebration ever. Why not go out with Thunderpussy's decadent rock bang?
by Dave Segal
<p><span class="dropcap">R</span>eal talk—this might be the last New Year's Eve we're ever going to have. A quick look at the news fills one with a keen sense of apocalyptic anxiety. Irrational and greedy politicians who suck at diplomacy in positions of power; the nuclear football in Trump's tiny, inept hands; lethal climate change; religious intolerance; the death of "truth"; and music-streaming services' gross avarice are all signaling end times.</p>
<p>Faced with this grim scenario, people can't help feeling like an ultimate decadent New Year's Eve experience is in order. Set aside your smug (if accurate) "it's amateur night" disdain for the last entertainment opportunity of the annum, and submit to the temptation to damn the torpedoes and rock out with your dignity in the dumpster. This is a job for Thunderpussy.</p>
<p>These four Seattle women—Molly Sides (vocals), Whitney Petty (guitar), Leah Julius (bass), and Ruby Dunphy (drums)—make rock music that's built for IDGAF id-liberating. Thunderpussy's songs make a beeline for your lizard brain and then impel you to bang the container in which said lizard brain sits. In this regard, they resemble the lubricious ruggedness of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin at their raunchiest, and the Runaways. No, it's not innovative, but Thunderpussy's hard rock slams with a classic AOR punchiness.</p>
<p>Their debut 7-inch for Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready's HockeyTalkter imprint proved they could earn the respect of rock's sort-of-old guard. McCready called Thunderpussy his favorite new band and dubbed "Velvet Noose," the A-side of their single (which is sold out), "an amazing and catchy rock song... Live, they have an incredible energy with amazing musicianship. All four women are as talented as they come."</p>
<p>With that stirring recommendation, Thunderpussy signing to major label Republic's Stardog subsidiary does not surprise. They have <i>huge</i> commercial potential. Even in a time when rock songs infrequently crack the Top 40, Thunderpussy could be the rare group to break through to mainstream success. Their instantaneous hooks, predilection for eye-catching garb, and flagrant charisma should translate into at least medium-sized stardom. That Thunderpussy could make "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," a holiday song from 1963, sound vital, boisterous, and non-saccharine bodes well for their future.</p>
<p>The band recorded their debut album—due in 2018—with acclaimed producer Sylvia Massy (Tool, Johnny Cash). The lead single from it, "Speed Queen," is about as heavy as Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" and as adrenalized as Deep Purple's "Highway Star." Yes, it belongs in that lofty company, and it makes me want to hear what other power moves they've cooked up.</p>
<p>In a 2014 interview, <i>The Stranger</i>'s Trent Moorman asked how Thunderpussy deal with a male-dominated society. Julius responded: "All four of us women do things that have historically been male-dominated. We play music, ride motorcycles, date girls, and lift heavy shit for a living. And we don't do them as a 'fuck you' to the male-dominated society, or in an attempt to advance women's rights, we do them because we can and want to."</p>
<p>That's a pure and righteous mission statement. <i id="recStar" class="fa fa-star rec-star" aria-hidden="true"></i></p>
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Wed, 20 Dec 2017 04:00:00 -0800The Stranger